The present invention generally relates to an electrophotographic copying apparatus or the like, and more particularly, to a developer material supply arrangement for feeding developing material to a developer tank of an electrophotographic copying apparatus, and also to an improvement of the developing tank.
In an electrophotographic copying apparatus, the developer material is generally supplied into the developing tank thereof upon installation of the copying apparatus, and also, when the developer material which has been used for a predetermined amount of time is to be replaced.
Conventionally, however, it has been a common practice to effect the supply of the developer material as referred to above by removing the developing tank from the apparatus so as to remove its upper lid for charging the developer material thereinto, and therefore, for the supply of the developer material, a special person in charge is necessary for attaching and detaching the developing tank, with troublesome procedures being simultaneously required. Meanwhile, a conventional practice has also been developed in which the developer material is accommodated in a cartridge or the like to facilitate the supply thereof to the developing tank, but in this case, an arrangement for discharging the developer material from the cartridge is required, while a mechanism for operating such an arrangement must further be provided, thus resulting in a disadvantage that the cost of the arrangement is undesirably increased on the whole.